Al Shipley: Two things that got buzz regardless of quality in 2012, female rappers and Chicago street rap, come together for a truly turgid bag of shit that gets whatever catchiness it possesses from a nicked 2 Chainz chorus. [1]

Andy Hutchins: So much of the drill scene — one of Chiraq, Drillinois’ many contributions to rap in 2012 — amounts to variations on “We shoot guns” recited over droning beats. That is hard to process on any day of the year, considering Chicago’s shadowed by gun violence like few other places in America (or the world, one could extrapolate), but the defense even Horkheimer and Adorno would raise is that drill is a product of the culture around it as much as it culture itself, and some of those drill songs are hits: “I Don’t Like” in its pure, uncut form is one brilliant note, and “L’s Anthem” is by some margin the most haunting rap song the Windy City produced this year. “We Ridin Round and We Drillin” is not on those songs’ level, and is notable primarily for “And all them guns bang like Chief Keef.” And judging art that is potentially harmful is easiest when the art itself isn’t all that compelling.[4]

Katherine St Asaph: Hell’s bells, menace and a girl blase about it all. The track included.[6]

Patrick St. Michel: Sets out to be unsettling and succeeds thanks to the creepy production and the monotone way Katie Got Bandz delivers her lines. She has her style down, but it also isn’t compelling beyond that. [5]

Anthony Easton: The music is much more interesting — and much uglier — than the lyrics.[6]

Brad Shoup: The lack of RapGenius transcription is some kind of a signal, I think. Could be it’s been too hard to tab Chicago this year. Or cos Katie’s not a dude. She gulps words she ought to nail, as patiently as she and Blokk paced this. She’s clear to a fault: phraselets as easy to digest as the battery-powered ghost wail and eerie bell intervals. And the motif sounds like beaten sheet metal. I’m cautiously on board.[7]

Jonathan Bradley: Katie’s music has a ragged quality, as if she weren’t even really meant to be a rapper. She mumbles her words sleepily and acts as her own hypewoman, appending a drawn out “Kaaaaaaaatiiieeee” to the back of her lines. The amateurism lends an undercurrent of menace to her mumbles; she doesn’t even need heft in her voice to make “my hair long but that snub short” or “I got Twitter hittas that’ll follow you” sound unnerving. The clanking, whirring beat, augmented by gunshots, bells, and the ticking flutter of a cash counting machine underlines the point: she might sound sloppy, but you shouldn’t get too comfortable. It would be a mistake to underestimate her.[8]

I am largely ignorant of US gun culture and uninformed about recent events so I am steering well clear of that BUT when I hear ‘we drillin’ I picture Katie with a driving around with a Black & Decker 800W Powermate. Nnnnnnnnr!